segregation+4a

In public schools, racial segregation was the norm across America in 1950s. Most black schools were inferior compared to white schools though all the schools were supposed to be equal. In black schools, there were not enough teachers. Only one teacher taught all students. In white schools, there were many teachers to teach different subjects. Although white schools were made out of concrete, black schools were made out of wood. Whites could use more money for school supplies than blacks.

In Topeka, Kansas, Linda Brown who was a black third-grader had to walk one mile to her black elementary school even though a white elementaey school was only seven blocks away. Oliver Brown, her father tried to enroll her in a white elementary school, but the principal of the school refused. Brown went to McKinley Burnett who was the head of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to ask for help. In 1951, the NAACP requested an injunction that forbid the segregation of Topeka's public schools. The Board of Education's respose was that the segregated schools were not neccessarily harmful to black children.The request for injunction put the court in a difficult decition. The Court had to make a decision based on whether or not desegregated schools deprived black children of equal protection of the law. The decision of the court was that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but not equal"has no place.Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.The court stuck down "separate but not equal" doctrine of Plessy for public education and required the desegregation of schoools across America.

Newspaper "THE TOPEKA" was established on May 27,1954.

Linda Brown was in the third grade when her father started the class-action suit.

Rika O.

the mothers and fathers of the blacks students were fed up and decided to put theirs words on picket signs and in front of important places. <ashley

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a case decided in 1954 in which the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. The court decided the case together with several others that dealt with the same issue. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) decided to use the //Brown// case and its companion cases to challenge the "separate but equal" principle.
 * __Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas__**


 * __//Brown// Case__→**Oliver Brown, an African American railroad worker in Topeka, sued the Topeka Board of Education for not allowing his daughter, Linda Brown, to attend Sumner Elementary School, an all-white school near her home.


 * __Other Cases__→**Involved similar suits by black parents from other parts of the country.

Thurgood Marshall criticized the "separate but equal" rule. He argued that segregation harms minority students by making them feel inferior and interfering with their ability to learn. In this decision, the court agreed with him and declared that separate educational facilities could never be equal.



Black schools were inadaquate for learning. They may have been fine for housing an animal, but not human beings. Although African Americans recognized this fact, they could do little to help the situation. Many tried to complain, but were always turned away. After the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, the term "seperate but equal" became theterm everyone used. However, the schools were not equal. In fact, the black schools were horrible compared to the white schools. Here, a mother and daughter are celebrating the desegregation in the schools. Alice L.

By:Rika O., Mizuki O., Ashley W., Allison L.